My sense of wonder was fueled in my childhood by several amazing TV series, among them Cosmos by Carl Sagan (his ending of the last episode quite literally changed my life) and the nature documentaries from BBC.

I went down to our public library and got some episodes from the David Attenborough series, and I find them as amazing today as then. They really bring out the beauty, richness, intimacy and mystery of this living planet. I also found this BBC webpage with some snippets from interviews with him - he is a great informal storyteller as well.

His approach to conservation - or as I see it, sustainability and eventually deep culture change - is through showing the immense beauty of nature as it is, rather than reminding us of all the human made destruction.

We all know of this destruction, and it does not work very well in the long run to have a reaction against that as our main motivation for change (tends to get us paralyzed and/or burnt out).

But this immense beauty of nature is something that fuels and inspires us, and can do so indefinitely. It is after all us, it is the larger whole of us, and there is an instant recognition of that. There is a sense of intimacy which comes from a very real and deep connection with the Earth as a whole and all its many aspects.